2021 Colorado Code
Title 5 - Consumer Credit Code
Article 20 - Colorado Student Loan Servicers
Part 2 - Private Student Education Lenders
§ 5-20-202. Definitions

As used in this part 2, unless the context otherwise requires:

1. “Collection agency” means a collection agency, as defined in section (3), that collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, a consumer debt resulting from a private education loan. The term includes a debt buyer, as defined in section 5-16-103 (8.5).
2. 1. “Cosigner” means any individual who is liable for the obligation of another without compensation, regardless of how the individual is designated in the contract or instrument with respect to that obligation, including an obligation under a private education loan extended to consolidate a borrower's preexisting student loans. The term includes any individual whose signature is requested as a condition to grant credit or to forbear on collection.
   2. “Cosigner” does not include a spouse of an individual described in subsection (2)(a) of this section if the spouse's signature is needed solely to perfect the security interest in a loan.

3. “Creditor” means the seller, lessor, lender, or person who makes or arranges a private education loan and to whom the loan is initially payable, or the assignee of a creditor's right to payment, but use of the term does not in itself impose on an assignee any obligation of the assignor. “Creditor” does not include a collection agency as defined in section 5-16-103 (3).
4. “Postsecondary educational institution” means an institution that provides postsecondary instruction, as defined in section 23-60-103 (3).
5. “Postsecondary education expense” means any expense associated with a student's enrollment in, or attendance at, a postsecondary educational institution.
6. 1. “Private education lender” or “lender” means:
      1. Any person engaged in the business of making or extending private education loans;
      2. A holder of a private education loan; or
      3. A creditor.

   2. “Private education lender” or “lender” does not include:
      1. A bank, as defined in 12 U.S.C. sec. 1841 (c);
      2. A credit union; or
      3. An industrial bank organized under Title 7, Chapter 8, Financial Institutions Act, Utah Code Annotated, as amended.

7. 1. “Private education loan” means a student education loan that:
      1. Is not made, insured, or guaranteed under Title IV of the “Higher Education Act of 1965”, 20 U.S.C. sec. 1070 et seq., as amended; and
      2. Is extended to a consumer expressly, in whole or in part, for postsecondary educational expenses, regardless of whether the loan is provided by the postsecondary educational institution that the student attends.

   2. “Private education loan” does not include:
      1. A loan that is secured by real property, regardless of the purpose of the loan; or
      2. An extension of credit in which the covered postsecondary educational institution is the lender if:
         1. The term of the extension of credit is ninety days or less; or
         2. An interest rate is not applied to the credit balance and the term of the extension of credit is one year or less, even if the credit is payable in more than four installments.

8. “Private education loan borrower” means any resident of Colorado, including a student loan borrower, who has received or agreed to pay a private education loan for the resident's own postsecondary education expenses.
9. 1. “Total and permanent disability” means, except as otherwise provided in subsection (9)(b) of this section, the condition of an individual who:
      1. Has been determined by the United States secretary of veterans affairs to be unemployable due to a service-connected disability; or
      2. Is unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment that can be expected to result in death, has lasted for a continuous period of not less than twelve months, or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than twelve months.

   2. “Total and permanent disability” does not include a condition that has not progressed or been exacerbated, or that the individual did not acquire, until after the closing of the loan agreement.

History. Source: L. 2021: Entire part added,(SB 21-057), ch. 378, p. 2517, § 5, effective June 29.